You
got trouble, folks, right here in Virginia City  Apologies
to Meredith Willson and Prof. Harold Hill

CENSORED
ON THE COMSTOCK: The April 24 column, linked
above, was exorcised from the 4-29-2005 Comstock Chronicle because of
religious prejudice in the Virginia City community and on the part of
the newspaper's editor. I suppose the three previous installments questioning
church policy and theology were one thing, but pope jokes were something
else again. In almost two decades of writing for the various owners of
the Sparks Tribune and more recently the Comstock Chronicle, this is the
first time an entire piece has been purged because of its content. (I
have had a dirty word or two changed to #@*&!% on rare occasion, depending
on the personal hangups of the higherups, but this is something completely
different.) The wordburning waxes exceedingly ironic given that the Tribune
has since 1988 published the widest range of opinion of any newspaper
in the state, large or small. To this day, we ink the weekly opinions
of an avowed socialist and an overt racist.
I like having them around  they make me look reasonable. Nonetheless,
given the voodoo vagaries of codified superstition, I'm the one who got
banned in the Sausalito of Nevada. Go figger.

So
if you are overly sensitive to pope jokes, read no further. You have been
warned. Alleluia.

UPDATE
9-11-2005: In addition to the Barbwire, the writings of legendary Comstock
resident Travus T. Hipp and the world class cartoons of Dan O'Neil and
his "Odd Bodkins" are no longer available to Comstock Chronicle
readers.

"God
is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh" 
Voltaire
(1694-1778)